Moving day...

I hate packing. I have to go through every single little thing before I put it into the box, because I loathe finding junk when I'm unpacking. Thankfully I was only moving my office from one part of the house to another. The bad part is that a chain reaction was required to do so.

First, I had to clean out our loft area, or at least one side of it. That required the assistance of my children, since it was their piles of junk that had clogged the energetic artery. Next, the requisite disagreement over where to place the desk. I compromised by putting a temporary desk arrangement downstairs in the front of the house so if I didn't keep it neat, the office furniture would be waiting for me upstairs. Finally, now that the behemoth desk is sitting vacant in the loft, freeing up the game room, we can take the remainder of the cash from the sale of our wooden fort and purchase a cool pool table/air hocky game! I'm eager to give the kids their game room, even though it means moving our nice big 50" plasma upstairs.

Moving anything stirs up a lot of stuff. I'm not just talking about dust bunnies, either. There are a lot of emotions that are attached to the things that need to be tossed. When you let go of something, it frees up your hands to receive new abundance. Maybe that's why I got 2 new clients today and the possibility of 2 more within hours of turning on my computer in the new location! I'm excited about having a space that is away from the kids, not because I don't love them, but because I love ME! I needed to find a spot in the house that wasn't predicated on practicality, but rather something that focused on helping me develop my personality as a writer.

I realized that I couldn't write while sitting in my loft. It's just not grounded enough for me to feel safe to let my ideas really flow. It's unfortunate that we have a glorious space for a big desk and room to spread out lots of files there, but if I spend too much time there, I begin to feel spacey, nauseous, and disoriented. Perhaps I'm too sensitive, or too stubborn to admit that it could work, but right now, I'm thrilled that I am sitting in the Skills & Knowledge section of my home, knowing that this will enable me to find the resources I need to begin work on my books.

First, though...a new chair. This one isn't very comfortable. And to think that I used to believe that my bottom already had enough cushion! Could this be an excuse to eat more cheesecake? Perhaps! :-)

Fear-inducing oinks...

OK, I've had enough. It's only day 4 or so of the swine flu hysteria, and the panic in the 'burbs is spreading like wildfire. Never mind the fact that there have been ZERO cases of the illness in the neighboring counties. Never mind the fact that people who get sick recover (yeah, there have been a couple of deaths, but not enough to warrant this reaction), and never mind that hand sanitizer is anti-BACTERIAL and has no impact on a VIRUS!!

I refuse to buy into the sensation that is being created over this. Yes, if you have a serious underlying health condition, then please take all necessary precautions. However, it seems ridiculous to me to cancel all UIL athletic and academic competitions and many other extracurricular activities just on the mere HINT of a sneeze. That's like cutting off your toe in case you might stub it, or getting both breasts removed simply because someone in another city got a positive result for cancer. Oh, wait, there are those who do that, too... At any rate, it's a move that is out of proportion with the threat. Of course, this is just my opinion.

On the other hand, much of a person's reaction to this event depends on their own personal filter. My husband has the opposite reaction to all of these measures, and my daughter is on the fence. Both have recently finished reading books on the Plague and the yellow fever epidemic of 1793, so the horror of an epidemic/pandemic is still fresh in their minds. Avoiding public places and following the advice of the CDC is not a bad thing, but it's unfortunate that everyone is freaking out. I liken it to the whole terrorism color-coding alert system. After a while, you just tune it out.

My Louise Hay book, "Heal Your Body", correlates physical illnesses with likely mental causes, and here's what she has to say about influenza:

Probable Cause: Response to mass negativity and beliefs. Fear. Belief in statistics.

New Thought Pattern: I am beyond group beliefs or the calendar. I am free from all congestion and influence.

I plan on saying that positive affirmation on a daily basis until this "crisis" is over. That, and washing my hands.

Mission Accomplished!

Hurray! The wedding went off without a hitch, I'm grateful to say. Well, other than the fact that I forgot to tell the guests to sit down after my brother & sister-in-law gave their blessing to my niece....but thankfully the maid of honor whispered in my ear that they were still standing. So, everyone got to stand while they recited their vows, oh well... :-)

I still find it hard to believe that I married a couple. The fact that it was my niece who has had to deal with the direct comparison to me all of her life made it all the more special. In fact, the whole event was magical. It started on time, no one in the bridal party fainted, and even the last-minute change of the sand ceremony by the high winds made the whole thing just perfect. Instead of the two glasses of sand standing on a small table up front, the wind forced them to be presented to the happy couple by the bride's parents. Yeah, I could absolutely get used to the energy rush of pure joy from everyone at the ceremony... Still, a sage bit of advice from another minister friend comparing the officiant to a piece of furniture gave me new perspective on my role, and it also took all of the pressure off. Thanks, Ellen!

My aunt was able to attend with her ailing husband, too. They made the Herculean effort to drive from LaCrosse, KS, all the way to Denton. Justin has been battling severe diabetes for decades, and is usually confined to a wheelchair, unless he's back in the hospital for various complications of the disease. The stars aligned for this event, though, and he had enough energy to actually get up out of the chair and dance for several songs! The ecstacy and wonder in his children's faces was equaled only by the unabashed joy and gratitude on his wife's face. Justin wore a grin from ear to ear all night long...poetry, pure poetry! It was the completion of a promise that Justin made to his grandson that if Mat ever got married, then he would come to his wedding. And so he did.

Perhaps I am biased, but this whole event was almost surreal in the blending of families, the ease of old friends reconnecting, and the nearly seamless transitions from pre-wedding jitters to post-ceremony joy. Yeah, I got to stand up front and say some words, but this had a truly blessed feel to the entire day that could only come from the Creator.

Yeah, I do still sound like a bliss bunny, I know, but it really was that cool! Guess some of that may stem from the feeling that my husband and I renewed our vows by proxy, and by being able to dance the night away myself, and by having both of my children tell me several times that I did good, but regardless, I think I'll hold onto this feeling for a long time. It's a keeper!

Breathing lessons

I woke up this morning in a state of panic. Well, not panic, per se, but the unceasing constriction of anxiety that precedes taking a step that is so far out of your comfort zone that it is nearly inconceivable to the imagination. You see, I’m about to perform a wedding for my beloved niece and her fiance. The only certification that I have is an on-line ordination from The Universal Life Church, which I got about a year ago to legally protect me during my hands-on energy clearing/coaching sessions. Of course, being happily married to the same man for nearly 18 years helps me to understand the intimate nature and gravity of the situation, but standing up in front of up to 150 people to legally, if not spiritually, sanctify the union of a loving couple? Yeah, now you understand why it’s been a bit tough to breathe lately…

So I finally surrendered this morning to this feeling. I let myself feel as if I were going to disappear, and I even watched that part of me experience the worst situation I could imagine. I put that small part in a bubble with all of the disappointment, the criticism, the judgments of those present and not present, as well as all of my own fearful thoughts, and watched as the combined weight literally crushed that aspect of me. When it was all over, I felt lighter, free! It is a very uncomfortable feeling to witness this type of destruction, but I had to allow it to happen in order to let the rest of me escape the tightening noose of emotions that threatened to pull me under.

The final act of purging these inner demons came in the shower. Sea salt is a wonderful purifying agent, and I had a tub of Arbonne’s Awaken sea salt scrub. As the fragrance wafted over my olfactory glands, I impulsively grabbed a handful and began scrubbing the grit over my heart. As I worked my way around the rest of the dermal layers, I turned this simple act of cleansing my body into a meditation, saying the following words out loud:

I wash away any negativity lingering in my heart, allowing it open fully to receive God’s wisdom and guidance
I wash my arms, the symbol of the ability to hold on to those I love and to release that which no longer serves me
I wash my back, capable of bearing enormous weight with ease and grace
I wash my legs, strong enough to carry me to whatever the future holds for me, yet flexible enough to stay balanced
I wash my feet, symbols of the strong foundation of my childhood teachings and the foundation that I have created for myself
As the water washes over me, the salt cleanses me of any residual fears and negativity surrounding this event,
Awakening me to my full God-given potential.
I may be flawed, but I AM perfect just as I AM.
Thank you, Mother-Father God!

Once this act had been completed, I was finally able to take a deep breath and KNOW that all would be well, that all IS well. I may not perform the ceremony perfectly, but that’s OK. Of course, if I ever wanted to have fun with the title on the card that I received, I guess it could be a lot of fun to go around introducing myself as “Rev Bev”! Not today, though…today, I’ll just stick with Bev, and I’ll strive to be the best, perfectly flawed Bev that I can be. Namaste!

Happy Easter...and pass the meat, please!

OK, 6 weeks later, and I have broken my animal protein fast. My digestive system is still figuring it all out, but I can honestly say that I'm not in a feasting frenzy over meat. Yeah, that chicken in my Chinese Chicken Salad from The Cheesecake Factory was tasty, but it didn't add much of anything to the salad. And my bacon this morning simply tasted greasy, not delectable like I had remembered. My taste buds were simply "whelmed". Not over- or under-, just whelmed.

Yeah, it's nice to not have that as a self-imposed restriction anymore, but I'm not going out of my way to get a big slab of beef anytime soon. Too many yummy veggies out there!

Getting in touch with my inner crank...

Spending time with my children and their friends is a terrific way to make me feel old and out of touch. I find out so many new tidbits about my personality, though, that I am compelled to do so as often as they’ll let me.

For example, I never realized that I was a racist. This has become the de facto retort whenever I comment on my son’s habits and the friends that they came from. I am admittedly a grammar snob, so when I hear the English language being butchered, I’m not shy about calling attention to it. One of my biggest pet peeves is the use of “Aks” instead of “Ask”.

It was quite jarring to hear that come from my 8th grade son’s mouth. He’s a master chameleon with his language habits, word usage, and even body posture, adopting the mannerisms of whatever group he’s with at the time. Those three little letters to me sound so, well, lazy. And wrong. Does that mean I’m a racist?

According to my son, yes.

While I vehemently disagree, it does illustrate my tendency to be a major nit-picker. Proper language has been very important to me ever since my broadcasting days in college. It took me nearly a year of hard work to eliminate the “R” in “Wash”!

I can’t stand it when I hear people, men and women alike, lapse into the “Honey” or “Sweetie” routine automatically, making their voices into sugary concoctions designed to induce diabetes. I’m a regional-ist, if that is even a word, since I have a hard time taking anyone with a strong southern drawl seriously. My own father used to drive me crazy with the slow, deliberate pacing of his words. Now I realize that it wasn’t a lack of intelligence that drove his pace. He just refused to let his thoughts outrun his words, choosing them carefully in order to achieve clarity, rather than speed. Even with this pet peeve, I find that the longer I live in Texas, the more entrenched “Y’all” becomes in my daily conversations.

After a day of hanging out with my daughter and her band at Six Flags on Saturday, I really began to feel like a fuddy-duddy. I am apparently a tattoo-ist, too. Perhaps I’m just unable to commit, but would I really want to have angel wings forever engraved on my shoulder blades? Or worse, a large Yosemite Sam emblazoned on my bicep? The gentleman who had a tarantula tat dangling from a spiderweb behind his ear probably isn’t too concerned with my critique, but I guarantee that he’s not getting the prime income-earning positions in the work force.

I already knew I was a weight-ist. As a child, I was uncomfortable around people with more chins than limbs. As I have matured, I have nearly overcome this prejudiced view, which has a direct correlation with my own dance with the scales. But whatever happened to dressing modestly? After looking at the majority of arms in the amusement park, sleeves must not come in XXL. Better to show off those becoming tattoos, obviously.

Just because I have realized yet again that I can be quite judgmental doesn’t mean that I can’t change. Awareness is but the first step to eliminating a bad habit. But you’re still not going to find me at the tattoo parlor.

My Feng Shui article from the Dallas Morning News!

Uncertain times tend to make people feel nervous, and when unexpected events come along – even positive ones – it can really complicate things. Take my friend Layne, for example. She was thrilled when her daughter was selected to compete in the Future City engineering competition in Washington, D.C. But the cost of the trip wasn't in the budget.
"I had no idea where that $1,500 would come from. The stress of going into debt was making me depressed, so I put a note in my Helpful People/Travel section of my house and another one in my Wealth corner: 'Help with D.C. trip.' Not four days later, one of the other parents on the FC team called to tell me that my hotel room would be completely comped!"
Layne didn't use magical thinking to manifest a free hotel room. She simply shared her situation with her friends. Then she went one step further and used Feng Shui to enhance the energy of her home. She created a physical form of prayer with the notes and left the rest up to the heavens.
The 5,000-year-old philosophy of Feng Shui helps people look at their external environment in a new way. Every space, whether it's a house, a room, a desktop or even a city, is divided up into nine equal sections. Each of the sections in this "Bagua" map corresponds energetically with a different part of your life. Layne needed money for a trip, so she focused on the Travel and Wealth sections of her home.
When my husband was laid off a year and a half ago, I immediately placed a small table-top water fountain in the middle front part of our home, which is the part of the house that corresponds to Career and Life Path. Running water symbolically generates more opportunities.
Next, we swept out the garage, which is the front right corner of our home. This is our Helpful People/Travel section, and when this part of a home is neat, organized and filled with things that have positive stories to tell, you'll find that others show up to help you in ways that you didn't even know you needed.
I addressed the Skills & Knowledge section of the house, which is the left front corner. Any job search will lead to multiple opportunities, even if one of the options is to remain unemployed. Having the ability to discern the right step to take is key to future satisfaction. Clutter in this part means that your thought processes are too twisted to let true guidance through.
Finally, I scrubbed the walls in our Wealth section, which is the far left corner of the house. I got rid of the broken vase there and replaced the dusty plastic flowers with flourishing green plants. I also relocated a bamboo plant here to symbolize a new opportunity full of growth and abundance. I had my husband write out notes of gratitude for the new job to serve as physical reminders of the intentions.
While I worked on the house, Allen was busy networking and polishing his resume. He started doing some freelance work, and was pleased to see some promise there. Then the phone rang and a colleague from his previous employer asked if he'd be interested in coming back.
Of course, waterfalls, positive affirmations and bamboo plants won't fix a bad resume, a defeatist attitude or poor money management. However, by making conscious changes in your physical environment, you begin to modify your attitude – and your actions.
So finish your coffee, and take a look around. It's a perfect day to clear some clutter!
Beverly Biehl of Frisco runs her own interior decorating and feng shui consulting business. Her e-mail address is Beverly@TheIntuitiveInterior.com.